2024 NEBRASKA STATE FAIR Gov. Jim Pillen says the Nebraska State Fair offers an "exciting 11 days" when people can do nothing but celebrate agriculture, enjoy and encourage each other "and have a ton of fun in the meantime." Pillen spoke at Friday's opening ceremony, held at Earl May Fair Square.
The governor commended members of the State Fair Board. "You guys work tirelessly to make this just an extraordinary event and an extraordinary time for Nebraskans. So I can't say thank you enough," Pillen said.
He also said it's good to brag about the great work of extension educators in all 93 counties. At the state fair and at county fairs, the "first professor" kids come in contact with is an extension educator, he said. Pillen talked about the "countless volunteers across all of our communities that spend a ton of time" helping kids learn about agriculture and helping start them "being exposed to leadership characteristics and opportunities.
" In making things and showing livestock, kids experience "the grit and the determination and some of the good, some of the bad, some of the challenges — falling down in a pile of manure, go digging through a mud hole, whatever it all takes." The most beautiful thing kids learn, in being involved in 4-H and taking care of livestock, is that "life isn't about me," Pillen said. They learn that "somebody relies on them and they can then take those characteristics and those skills to depths and levels that no one can really, really ever compreh.